Giannis and the Bucks bury the Chicago Bulls in the paint

A near-upset opportunity on the road came about for the Chicago Bulls in an eventual 124-115 loss to the divisional foe Milwaukee Bucks.

It was a long night for the Chicago Bulls down low, who allowed more than 65 points to the reigning NBA MVP, forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the Milwaukee Bucks in a 124-115 los on Nov. 14. The Bucks and Bulls were pretty evenly matched in most stat categories in this game, except for one.

When the Bulls get outrebounded and outplayed in the paint like they did on Thursday night, winning was going to be a very difficult feat. Head coach Jim Boylen ran into bad luck when second-year center Wendell Carter Jr. had a bad night and fouled out fairly early in the second half. That left power forward Lauri Markkanen and the multiple guards the Bulls ran with for most of the second half to try and matchup with Giannis.

Moreover, the Bucks got very productive nights from Giannis and point guard Eric Bledsoe. Giannis finished the night with a game-high 38 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block. Outside of points and rebounds, it was a pretty pedestrian night for Giannis and the Bucks. But Bledsoe did have a huge game with 31 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds, and 2 steals. The five turnovers from Bledsoe on the night didn’t help, though.

The leading scorers for the Bulls were shooting guard Zach LaVine (25 points) and rookie point guard Coby White (26 points). This Bulls team just wasn’t able to get that same insane microwave scoring presence in the second half off the bench like he had in his previous outing.

The problem for White tends to be the amount of shots he has to jack up to get his points. He had 23 attempts from the field and 26 points. A lot of those came in the first half when he continued his hot shooting streak from beyond the arc that he started with that record seven three-point makes in one quarter in the win over the New York Knicks on Nov. 12.

Yet, the defense held up pretty strong for the Bulls throughout most of this game. Point guards Ryan Arcidiacono and Kris Dunn were hot on defense all night, and both even were defending against Giannis at different times. Arcidiacono was only a -5 on the night despite some tough possessions when Giannis was on the floor and Dunn posted an impressive three steals.

This game surfaced too many of the same problems that the Bulls ran into throughout the regular season so far. Boylen needs to stop running so many guard heavy rotations and find a way to stop getting outrebounded so frequently. The floor spacing tends to disappear down the stretch too. All too often were the Bulls referring to the tough-shot making ability of LaVine for low percentage opportunities.

And whenever a team gets to the free-throw line for 47 attempts, the score could get lopsided. Giannis was at the line every time you looked up it seemed. While he didn’t shoot the best percentage, the frequency was just too much. The Bulls were efficient from the line but got to the charity stripe about 20 times less than the Bucks.

The loss moves the Bulls to a record of 4-8 on the season. They are falling behind even further in the Central Division standings as the Bucks move to 8-3.

Up next for the Bulls is a Nov. 16 battle with the Brooklyn Nets in the late afternoon at 4:30 p.m. CT.